Web communications teams

In order to produce effective Web communications, our teams need to possess general skills as well as a spectrum of Web-specific expertise, no matter whether we’re a team of 1 or 10. (It’s similar to building a house: you have to have someone do the drafting, carpentry, electrical, and plumbing work, no matter whether it’s a DIY or a mansion. Can’t really do without any of those skills.)

The general expertise we all need includes these areas:

• Marketing and branding
• Public and media relations
• Publishing and production

Then, there are the critical areas of expertise specific to the Web experience:

• Interface/interaction design
• Content development/architecture
• Rich media production
• Social media management
• Software development

With a team of one, a single Webmaster/manager did it all … or at least tried to. Of course, doing everything means nothing could be done particularly well.

With a team of 3, the same responsibilities can be distributed to people with greater and deeper expertise: manager, producer, developer. With a team of, say, 5, we can take advantage of recruiting for common industry skill sets. Note that roles, responsibilities, titles, and descriptions are significantly different for a team of 2 than for a team of 4.